League of Assassins
"No one can save Gotham. When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural. Tomorrow, the world will watch in horror as its greatest city destroys itself. The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time." ' The League of Assassins' is an ancient and powerful secret society whose stated purpose is to restore balance to the world. Founded by the mystical Ra's al Ghul, the League of Assassins seeks to fulfill its goal by any means necessary, having gained imfamy by destroying civilizations and killing powerful leaders to preserve their sense of justice. In reality, however, Ra's al Ghul plans to use the League of Assassins to bring about the Apocalypse. History Origin The League of Assassins has its ancient roots nearly 600 years in the past, around the time that Ra's al Ghul rose to power. He founded the League to be "The Fang that protects The Head," and used his wealth and power to gather some of the world's best killers, thieves, thinkers, scientists, and poloticians, placing them in the League under his command. From this, he developed the organization to be a force of balance, operating to instill and maintain his sense of justice on the world. The members of the League are trained to follow his every command, even if it means giving their lives upon his order. Reshaping the world Ra's al Ghul attributes several world events to be the responsibility of his League. They targeted places they deemed were the greatest sources of civilization's corruption and decadence, places that led to suffering and injustice. Acting as a self-appointed check against human corruption for hundreds of years, they claim to have instagated the sacking of Rome, starting the Black Plague, the great London fire, and the Gotham economic depression. Historical contexts appear to disprove their involvement in certain events that occured thousands of years in the past; however, more recent actions appear to have believeable involvement. Gotham The latest attempt from the League of Assassins to collapse civilization would be their trial of Gotham; Ra's al Ghul plotted to watch the city fall apart after depriving it of its economic strength, as opposed to older methods involving disease and assassination. However, thanks to certain strong foundations laid by capable citizens, including the Wayne family, Gotham proved resilient to Ra's initial plan, drawing his ire and drawing him to remain as a constant shadow within Gotham, setting up a base of operations in the city to learn of its defenders and how he might be able to bring him down. This brought him in conflict with Bruce Wayne, aka The Batman, who he has seen to hold great worth and a potential inheritor of his position as leader of the League. Ra's al Ghul has remained one of Batman's greatest enemies, and because of that the League of Assassins finds itself being used against the Dark Knight in a war of supremacy over the city of Gotham. Shaking the foundation The League of Assassins has recently undergone a series of events which culminated in the seeming death of Ra's al Ghul, and the loss of his immediate next of kin, Talia and Nyssa al Ghul. Leadership had passed on to Ducard, and then Shiva for a short time before the League was essentially usurped by Natasha Romanoff, an enemy of Ra's al Ghul and Nyssa's lover. Under Natasha's rule, the League has laid claim over Gotham, uniting several criminal groups under its banner. This virtually placed Gotham under the control of the League of Assassins, with Natasha acting as its self-appointed leader. Organization The Head of the Demon The leader of the League holds the title "Head of the Demon." Under them, the League is absolutely loyal, though this primarily extends to Ra's al Ghul exclusively. When Ra's lead the organization, the members of the League obeyed his every word to the letter, and would not hesitate to maim, torture, murder, or extort anyone on command if Ra's told them to do so. Under others who have taken the title, the loyalty is not as absolute, for the other leaders tend to make decisions different from Ra's; since the members swore blood oaths to uphold the word of Ra's alone and not the position of "Head of the Demon" itself, some members are not fully loyal to new leaders if they feel a conflict between the new leader and Ra's's ideals. The leader that the League has been the most loyal to, second to Ra's, is Ducard, followed by Natasha. Members *Ra's al Ghul - Former leader *Natasha Romanoff - Current Leader *Shiva - Former warrior, current Second *Talia al Ghul - Former second *Henry Ducard - Former emissary, ambassador, and trainer *Nyssa al Ghul - Former member *Ubu - Formerly Ra's al Ghul's personal bodyguard Category:Organization Category:Evil